On March 9, the Senate Committee on Official Languages criticized the federal failure to protect English language rights in Quebec. According to a new report: “Despite all the goodwill there may be on the ground, there are major disparities when it comes to access to schools, cultural products, heritage, training or jobs in English.”

The committee heard many stories last fall of discrimination in services. Examples included the failure to build an auditorium at Quebec City’s only English CEGEP, a situation the director testified “would not be tolerated at a single francophone college in Quebec City.” A leader of a Gaspé anglophone group decried the lack of English mental-health services. The committee’s chair, Senator Maria Chaput, described similar problems as a franco Manitoban. Ironically, to hear many Quebec francophones tell it, it is French that needs bolstering -and protection from English. Fead more…